Mariko had just walked into the hospital, ready to start her shift. Immediately she noticed something was horribly wrong. Despite there only being a few patients in the E.R, the hospital was in chaos. Doctors were rushing around as though they were preparing for a major natural disaster. Everyone's attention, however, kept being drawing to the T.V on the far wall. A knot formed in her throat as she saw a giant arm rake Endeavor through a building, completely severing the last few floors and sending it crashing to the ground.
"Endeavor? Keigo's with him today," she thought.
She swallowed thickly. She was barely aware of the newscaster talking over the fight and explaining what was going on. She was looking for her Hawks, her friend who she was certain was also involved in that mess. Unfortunately, the cameras were focused on the fight between the giant noumu and Endeavor, and she wasn't able to catch a single glimpse of the blonde.
"Mariko!" Sakura exclaimed. "Come on we've gotta prep for casualties. We're the closest hospital," she said dragging her into the locker room so she could put her stuff away and help the rest of the staff. The brunette didn't budge though. She stood frozen, a horrible, sinking feeling in her chest making her legs feel weak. It was the same feeling she'd had the last time she'd lost a friend. "I saw him an hour ago. There's no way... I can't do it again," she thought.
Sakura noticed her friend becoming dazed and pale. "Mari, what's wrong?" she asked worriedly.
"H-Hawks is there," she stated.
The brunette gasped. Now Mariko freaking out made sense. "She's lost too many people to an early death. Of course, she'd be terrified." She placed her hands on her friend's shoulders, "Mariko," she started, her voice soft, but firm. "Hawks is a hero. He's gotta do what he's gotta do, but so do we. They're heroes. They can deal with the noumu, but soon there's gonna be a flood of injured people and we need to take care of them. We need your head here Mari. I get that you're worried, but we can't afford for you to be lost in space," she told her.
Mariko blinked, the information slowly registering with her. She took a moment to clear her head, and Sakura sighed in relief when she looked up at her, a familiar determined look in her eyes. "She's right, I can't be distracted right now. He's Hawks, he'll be fine," she assured herself. She quickly stuffed her things into the locker room and immediately set off to work.
About a half-hour later, the first wave of injured came in. Thankfully, most were minor injuries; but there were a few people in critical condition because they'd been hit by falling debris. Mariko was sent into the O.R to help the surgeons. As she ran between O.Rs however, she couldn't help but strain her ears to grasp any information she could about Hawks. She learned that the blonde had been the one to evacuate most of the civilians and get them to safety, but that he'd lost basically all his feathers during the fight and no one had seen him since.
It was only an hour, but it seemed like an eternity before Endeavor was brought in on a stretcher.
"Saito, you and Tusbasa come with me," one of the trauma surgeons stated, leading her and a male nurse with a healing quirk to the room Endeavor was in.
A shadow crossed her features as her gaze fell upon the hero. He was unconscious and heavily injured. His arm was broken, and his face had a huge laceration. Those were just the ones she could see.
"He's got a 103-degree fever, a concussion, broken jaw, a severe laceration on the left side of his face, lacerations on his arms and legs, a spiral fracture on his arm, a punctured lung and severe bruising," Tusbasa said, using his quirk to analyze his body.
They moved him to the O.R as fast as they could, the punctured lung was the most serious injury and had to be taken care of right away.
They were operating on the hero for eight hours. Tsubasa normalized his temperature which was a result of quirk overuse, and they were able to give him anesthesia and operate without any complications. Once they had the lung, Mariko was in charge of regenerating the cells to heal the wound so the hero wouldn't need stitches. Once that was done, she healed his eyes so that he wasn't blinded by it and created new skin cells. Unfortunately, she couldn't do anything about it leaving a scar. Tsubasa set his jaw while Mariko worked on repairing the broken bones. Time ticked on well past the end of their shifts, but neither one of them dared moved away until they knew Endeavor would be alright. They couldn't leave anything up to chance. If Japan lost its number one again it would be complete chaos. They had to make sure Endeavor could be working fine within a week or two.
Once they were done, both of them were exhausted.
"Good work today, Tsubasa-kun," she said tiredly as they grabbed their things from their lockers.
"You too Saito-san. Rest up," he said.
Mariko gave him a nod and a small smile as she walked out of the room.
Worry still gnawed at her stomach. She knew Keigo was alive- if not she would've heard something by now- but she didn't know if he was in the hospital or not. After Endeavor had been escorted off the scene, people said that the blonde had disappeared. She slipped out her phone as she walked back to their apartment building, sending her friend a text asking him where she was and if he was alright. There was no response though.
She glanced at the screen one more time as the elevator doors opened, but her screen was still blank. Slipping her phone back into her pocket, she stepped out of the compartment and into the hallway. When she looked up, she nearly dropped her bag as she saw Hawks standing in front of her door, ready to knock.
Hearing the elevator doors open, he turned to her. His eyes were red and puffy with tears as he gave her a sad smile.
Her heart ached for the male as she briskly walked towards him and wrapped him in a tight hug. "Thank God you're okay," she sighed.
He returned the hug, burying his head in her neck. His arms wrapped around her and he squeezed tightly.
She felt him shake as tears rushed out of his eyes once more, his whole body feeling heavy with guilt. They were in the middle of the hallway and any of their neighbors could walk in on them at any time, but she didn't dare move away first.
After a while, Keigo pulled away, his eyes even more swollen than before.
She looked up at him, her expression holding nothing but worry. Gently she cupped his cheeks and brushed the tears away as they trailed down his cheeks.
He found himself fighting the urge to further lean into her touch. He stared at her, allowing himself to get lost in her eyes as she examined his face carefully, looking for any injuries.
"You're hurt," she said, commenting on the cut on the bridge of his nose. Thankfully, it was shallow. "Come on, she said, unlocking her front door and leading him inside. When she closed the door again, she looked at his back that for once, wasn't completely hidden by his wings. The sight made her feel sad. She sighed softly and grabbed the first aid kit before joining him on the couch.
He didn't wince or look uncomfortable as she disinfected the cut. He was concentrating on her face as she worked. He saw how pale she was and remembered they were pretty close to the hospital she worked at. "Did you work on the people from today?" he asked quietly. Those were the first words he'd spoken since coming into her apartment.
"At first yeah, but then Endeavor came in some and a co-worker had to switch over," she said turning away slightly to dispose of the cotton ball she'd used to disinfect the area. She noticed how he tensed at the mention of the hero. "he's worried," she thought. "He's gonna be totally fine. There'll be scars but he'll be back in business in a couple of weeks," she assured him.
"Thank you," he said quietly.
Mariko nodded and brought her hand up to his face.
Keigo watched as her fingertips glowed a faint silver, her thumb brushing over the injury gently. A cool, soothing feeling spread over him, the cut tingled slightly as she reconstructed the damaged tissue. When she pulled her hand away, the cut had disappeared. She didn't look satisfied, in fact, her expression was troubled.
"There's more," she said eyeing him. "You had a bad landing," she told him.
He sighed, shrugging, "It happens." He didn't want to make a big deal out of it because he saw how her expression had become wearier just by healing the small cut on his face. The last thing he wanted to do was cause another person trouble. "Especially her."
"I can imagine. Take your shirt off," she instructed, scooting back a bit so he had space to move.
"It's fine. You don't have to-"
"Stop," she interrupted. She looked up at him, her expression patient and gentle, "Let me do this for you," she said softly.
Keigo sighed and shrugged off his jacket, wincing slightly as he peeled his shirt off his body. The back was sticky with blood from the scratches he'd gotten when he'd been smacked into the roof.
She didn't ask him to turn around, she walked until she was staring at his back. She carefully disinfected the wounds, checking in on him to make sure he wasn't uncomfortable. Again, the cool feeling washed over him. This time it spread over his back, causing the stinging feeling to subside and fade into nothing as she repaired the skin.
Once her hands left him he turned to her. He said nothing, the silence hanging over them like a veil.
A moment later, Mariko brought her arms around his neck and pulled him into another hug.
A knot formed in his throat at the contact. He didn't feel like he deserved to be comforted after what he did. "It's all my fault," he whispered hoarsely.
She exhaled softly but remained silent, allowing him to continue.
"The plan was for the Noumu to be tested on some warehouses. Dabi changed the plan at the last minute and I didn't even hear about it... that bastard," he choked out.
"That attack's not your fault. You're not responsible for what they do. You reacted the best you could in that situation. You got everyone out of there safely and helped Endeavor beat him. You did a good job Keigo. I'm proud," she told him. "It'll be okay," she promised, soothing him.
He closed his eyes and folded himself so that he molded against her perfectly. He felt her warmth soak into him as fought back another wave of tears.
"Stop tryna make me cry and look uncool again," he breathed out shakily.
"You were cool?" she quipped, pulling away slightly. A small smile played at her lips.
The blonde returned it slightly before leaning his head back on her shoulder. He breathed in deeply, finding comfort in her scent of fresh laundry and flowers. A wave of exhaustion crashed over him. The day's events had completely drained him.
"You should get some rest," she told him.
"Yeah, just...gimme a minute," he said. He didn't want to leave yet.
Mariko sighed softly but shifted her position so that they were both more comfortable. She too was tired. Neither of them realized they had fallen asleep.